Soft on my skin
by Momo Cicerone
Summary: I don't know how much longer I can keep pretending that your eyes on me don't burn me like you're the sun and I'm flying a thousand light years too close to you. —Short Drabbles [RanShi] [Ran x Shiho] [Ran x Haibara] [Fluff]
1. Unwritten

**Summary:** Decidedly, Ran has a thing for impossible fairy tales and young geniuses. Only that this time it's her turn to be the knight in shining armour, white horse and all.

 **A/N:** I'm unapologetically bisexual so before you go any further please leave your homophobia at the door.

Slightly inspired on _Breakeven_ by AnnieAltman88.

 **Warnings:** Obviously _**NOT**_ a coai fanfic. Wish I could tell you you can pretend it is but no, this is a Ran-centric fic. Girl on girl or wlw/slash/yuri/lesbian or however u want to call it lol. Fairy tale drabble format. Implied ShinRan & Shinshi. A LOT OF CHEESE (because this is a momo fic, i mean what were you expecting?).

One-sitter. Unbetaed. What is proofreading?

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To Ran, fairy tales are as far-fetched as you allow yourself to dream of, so she's never really dreamed big —no dragons to slay or thousand-year-old curses; no fish tail trade or magic carpet rides to the moon. Her three wishes are bland in simplicity: find prince charming, get married to him and live happily ever after. She needs no kingdom to rule other than a home to call her own and no magic beanstalks on her backyard. Brewing love potions would never be as satisfying as serving a homemade meal on her round table, after all.

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She meets prince charming at the age of five, except that he goes by the name of Kudo Shinichi and proves to be much of a conceited brat at the time. It takes a lot of love and kindness —and _forgiveness_ — to shape him out of that, but she doesn't mind: princes are raised to be charming, not to be kind. That's a princess' duty, anyways. And so she makes it her responsibility to teach him kindness. He grows up well.

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They are seventeen and Ran thinks to herself that if life was a true fairy tale, prince charming would be asking for her hand in marriage and sweeping her off her feet to start a new life.

That's right before he suddenly disappears.

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She lies wide awake at nights wondering if this is the dramatic climax where her story takes a turning point for the best. And soon prince charming will be knocking on her door with a slain dragon and promises of the future she foresaw right when they were eight.

( _He doesn't._ )

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Ran stops wishing for happy endings and just wishes for prince charming to come back. He doesn't have to be wielding excalibur or be riding on his white horse. He doesn't even need an excuse. She'll walk by him through any dark forest anyway, no questions asked.

( _He_ _ **still**_ _doesn't._ )

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One day, Ran stops wishing altogether.

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Prince charming comes back to her eventually, wearing a tired smile and many battle scars on his heart. But he's as charming as ever, so charming that she _almost_ falls in love with him all over again.

( _She doesn't._ )

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Ran suspects that prince charming has found another damsel in distress to protect while he was out saving the world. She finds herself oddly at peace with that. Even happy, if you squint.

Except when she finally meets Miyano Shiho, and Ran gets to know what real life princesses are supposed to be. The damsel in distress is, as her name indicates, very much distressed to meet her. Her jade green eyes are filled with guilt and remorse as they meet hers, and Ran thinks to herself that the reddish hue on Miyano-san's cheeks resembles of blooming winter roses, just like those in the bedtime stories she used to love so much. Her pale hand is soft and warm at the touch.

After a brief handshake, Miyano pulls away as if burnt.

Ran doesn't know why her heart breaks a second time.

(Was it even whole again to start with?)

Regardless, the warmth of Miyano's grazing fingers linger way after they're gone.

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Miyano Shiho becomes a constant in prince charming's life, and by consequence she becomes inherently a part of Ran's life too. The _damsel in distress_ , as Ran secretly thinks of her, puts on a defensive wall around her and locks everyone out of reach, prince charming included.

Ran finds herself squeezing through the cracks and gaps of Shiho's defenses, holding her hand out in times when she's drowning in her own fear. With practice, she learns to chase Shiho's past ghosts away, unsuspectingly shredding pieces of her own heart in the process.

It comes as a surprise to her that Shiho is kind enough to pick up every shattered fragment of the heart that Ran left lying on the floor at love's mercy.

This time, the scientist refuses to return them.

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The _damsel in distress_ plants every remnant Ran's heart on soil and waters it every day.

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 _Love blossoms._

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Winter comes and Shiho's hands are soft on Ran's skin, but inside of her every touch burns with a kind of yearning that melts her heart away.

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To Ran, fairy tales as a real as you want them to be —a poisoned pill, a shape-shifting prince and a damsel in distress will meet ever so often. But princesses can't wait forever to be rescued and white horses sometimes just can't be tamed. Eventually, you have to write your own ending.

And so the knight in shiny armour rewrites her own fairytale with her fingertips tracing stories on her damsel's skin, making folklore of whispered tales on her lover's earlobes.

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 **A/N:** I initially intended to write lesbian vague/poetic sex but this went on a whole different tangent. Nothing went according to my keikaru OTL. I'm leaving the fic open because PERHAPS I might still write a short cuddle scene if I feel like it or if it's of anyone's interest.


	2. Girl Meets Girl

**Summary:** I don't know how much longer I can keep pretending that your eyes on me don't burn me like you're the sun and I'm flying a thousand light years too close to you.

 **A/N:** Thank you so much to the people who reviewed. I'm well aware that this ain't gonna be my most popular fic because it's rarepair but this is one of my most self-indulgent pieces and I'm extremely fond of it. The narrative style for this particular chapter is my absolute personal favorite (call it poetry, or love letter format, or first person adressing second person narrative, if that even exists). I'm also leaving this fic open because I might throw in short drabbles every once in a while if I feel like it.

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You're soft.

Soft and blue and breathtakingly beautiful, your eyes fixed on mine and the touch of your fingers over my quivering skin as you shake my hand with a timid _nice to meet you_. My facade crumbles under your scrutinizing stare and I can't help but blush like some kind of naive, overwhelmed schoolgirl. It's embarrassing, to say the least. And I don't know how much longer I can keep pretending that your eyes on me don't burn me like you're the sun and I'm flying a thousand light years too close to you.

You're _too much_ for me to even attempt to stare back. Too warm. Too bright. Too far away to try and reach out to you.

Self-consciously, I pull my hand away from your grasp.

You look hurt, and my heart breaks so loudly I'm scared you might have hear it shatter.

 _Oh, God._

I think I love you.

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 _It's okay_ , I tell myself, _no one has to know_.

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But you go far and beyond to climb over this wall and I don't know how to keep you out anymore. You come to me with your sunshine smile and your gentle grazing fingers casually poking my cheeks or gliding on my hair. They feel warm as they wrap comfortingly against my shoulder, when they rest over the back of my hand, as they run soothingly rubbing on my back.

...And I let you. _I let you_.

Do you even know what you do to me?

You come to me with a kind of love I've forgotten, and I don't know how to push you away without breaking what's left of my heart —If you go away, you'll be taking my heart with you. And see, I don't know if can make it in this world without you.

(Theoretically, I would survive. Realistically, you would have killed me.)

I think you've ruined me.

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The more I think of it, the more ironic I think it is that I got over _him_ after I met **you** but you got over _him_ before you met **me**.

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However,

I never thought I'd had to get over _you_.

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 _Please stop this._

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It's getting kind of cruel, don't you think? So for the sake of our friendship, please stop this.

I don't want your arms curled around mine or your sleeping head resting on my shoulder. I don't need girl's night at my place with your hands pampering my face in a way that's all too kind. I refuse sharing a sleepbag with you, or the rest of your soda, or the bright red lipstick you insist looks so good on me. _Don't want it, don't need it, won't have it._ I won't acknowledge the unfounded yearning in your eyes when you look at me ( _why do you even look at me like that?_ ). I deny you the right, the opportunity, the chance to break my heart.

And don't call me _Shiho-chan_ , for God's sake. I'm older than you.

So can we cut the BBF act now? I didn't ask for a best friend. I'm sorry but I can't be your best friend.

Because _you're killing me_.

(Why do you do this to me?)

So please, please stop this.

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You kissed me, and now we're both crying.

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I'm crying because _you're_ crying, _baka_. I'm crying because you love me too. Because your hand on mine it's soft but your grasp is firm and I'm holding the sun in my arms without fear of setting myself on fire. I'm crying because you gave me so much of yourself that I unsuspectedly became one with you.

I'm crying because I love you.

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What are _you_ crying for, huh?

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End file.
